The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (the "CFIA") recently released the proposed guidance: How to label and represent plant-based alternatives to egg products (the "Proposed Guidance"). Stakeholders have until October 28, 2024, to submit feedback on this Proposed Guidance.
Scope of the Proposed Guidance
The CFIA is clear that this Proposed Guidance only applies to plant-based alternatives to egg products.
The Proposed Guidance emphasizes that as an overarching principle, the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (the "SFCR") or the compositional standards prescribed in the Food and Drug Regulations (the "FDR") prohibit false, misleading or deceptive labelling and representation. As such, labels and advertisements for plant-based alternatives to eggs must not confuse consumers with an egg product subject to a compositional standard or mislead consumers about the true nature of the food.
The Proposed Guidance provides additional directives on how the CFIA will assess the overall impression of a label or advertisement for plant-based alternatives to eggs.
New Clarifications from the Proposed Guidance
The Proposed Guidance establishes that all the "components" on a label or advertisement, including any element, whether textual or graphical, contribute to the overall impression of a product. The CFIA specifies that to avoid being misleading these individual components and the overall impression created when the components are viewed together must provide sufficient information (i) to ensure that the consumer understands the nature of the product, and (ii) to clarify that the product is not an egg product.
Importantly, however, the CFIA adds that while one component could be misleading when viewed alone, other complementary information (i.e. other components appearing on the label or advertisement) could prevent the product from being misleading overall. According to the CFIA, complementary information gives the consumer a true impression of the product by giving complete and clear information.
We summarized below the new clarifications provided by the CFIA regarding specific components:
- Combination of Components: The more components are closely associated with egg products (for example a descriptor, like omelette, in the common name), the more likely it is the plant-based alternative will be misleading. In this case, a stakeholder should consider removing the potentially misleading components and/or adding components to help clarify the true nature of the product.
- Accurate and Comprehensive Ingredient list. Under the proposed guidance, the CFIA suggests that the plant-based alternatives to egg products should display an accurate and comprehensive list of ingredients required for plant-based egg products, which includes appropriate names for ingredients and components (that is, ingredients of an ingredient). This list should meet the additional requirements for lists of ingredients.
- Clear and Properly Qualified Common
Name. The product's common name should accurately
describe the product - and not only what it is not - with regards
to its basic nature, properties and nutritional content of the
product. The plant-based egg product's common name may use
terminology associated with egg products (i.e. yolk or omelette),
but it must be properly qualified and/or presented in a way that
avoids misleading consumers. The way these qualifiers are displayed
may also contribute to misleading consumers. The CFIA gives the
following examples:
- The common name "egg-free omelette" does not provide to consumer a complete and clear description of what the product actually is.
- The common name "plant-based omelette" does not accurately and precisely describe the food because the expression "plant-based" is vague and provides insufficient information to consumers to ascertain the true nature of the food. A more explicit and accurate common name would be "soybean protein omelette."
- A common name of a plant-based alternative to egg may use the term "liquid egg product." With the addition of "soybean protein" as a qualifier, the common name would be "soybean protein liquid egg product," which makes it clear that it is not liquid egg product which must comply with a compositional standard.
- The term "plant-based" presented in a very small font above the term "liquid egg product" which is more prominent would likely mislead consumers because of the prominent of the term "liquid egg product."
- Claims and statements. Different
claims may appear on a product label or advertising which may help
to dissipate any confusion and avoid misleading consumers as to the
true nature of a product. The CFIA provides additional directives
on a few common ones:
- Comparative nutrient claims: These claims generally highlight differences or similarities between plant-based alternatives to egg products and egg products, for instance "30% less fat than chicken's eggs." However, these claims must remain permitted, truthful and not misleading. Such claims must not give the impression that the plant-based food product is an egg product. The CFIA refers to the existing guidance on this kind of claim.
- Negative claims: A label or advertisement may use negative claims which indicates that something, such as an ingredient, is not part of the plant-based alternatives to egg products, such as "egg free" or "contains no eggs" to help create a better overall impression of the product.
- Graphical elements on Packaging and Advertising
(images, pictures, vignettes and logos). The
packaging and the advertising of plant-based alternatives to egg
product should not falsely suggest that it is an egg product, but
should clarify the product's nature. Graphical elements
appearing on labels and advertisements may suggest that the product
is similar to an egg product, but stakeholders should be careful to
ensure that the overall impression of the product is clear that the
food is not an egg product. To avoid creating any confusion or
misleading consumers, stakeholders should consider the impact of
the content depicted, location and prominence of the egg-related
imagery on the overall impression of the product and, when in
doubt, add complementary information to clarify the nature of the
product. For example:
- The image of a farm on the packaging: could suggest that chickens were raised on a farm to produce the product;
- The image of an omelette: provides a visual about how the product could look when prepared.
Going Forward
The CFIA provides much needed guidance on this matter although the Proposed Guidance is fairly limited in scope because it addresses only one specific kind of products. The CFIA is clear that the Proposed Guidance does not address labelling or representation of other plant-based alternatives. However, the Proposed Guidance mentions in passing that "following further analysis the proposed approach [suggested in the Proposed Guidance] may be applied to other foods in the future, for example, to other plant-based alternatives." It remains to be seen whether the CFIA will continue elaborating similar guidance for other plant-based products.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.